and wisconsin for the president, and mitt romney can put down his pakistan cliff notes, his atlas of sub-saharan frsk africa, his vac with us campaign and spend the rest of his days at his beach house reading binders of remorse. we have julian epstein, jonathan capehart, and here with me in new york, msnbc political analyst jonathan alter, a columnist for the bloomberg view. john capehart, if i can start with you, in the first debate mr. romney was antagonistic. in the second debate much more friendly to the president. in the third debate he became the president, agreeing with virtually everything that the commander in chief said. that debate, that wasn't a debate. that was political osmosis. >> it was incredible. as i wrote today, what a waste of time. at a certain point i began to feel like i either was listening to them in stereo or sitting in an echo chamber. mitt romney, who has campaigned on a whole lot of issues, foreign policy issues, suddenly -- >> john, i'm sorry to interrupt you -- john, i'm sorry to interrupt you, you said it was a waste of time. how can it possibly be a wast